Year: 2025

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through July 17.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have increased offers:

    Personal cards:
    – Personal Gold: 70,000 SkyMiles after $3,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Personal Platinum: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months

    Business cards:
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve : 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months

    Cobrand cards like this remain easier to play popup games than non-cobrand cards.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy cards have new sign-up bonuses, also available via referrals so use those instead:

    – Bonvoy Boundless: Five free night certificates, 50,000 points each after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Bonvoy Bold: 60,000 points and one free night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months

    The Bonvoy Bountiful card, one of the three most ridiculously named Chase Bonvoy cards, has no increased bonus.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The head of Chase’s Bonvoy credit card naming team.

  1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Southwest card): Register for Southwest’s promotion for 10x points on up to $500 spend at Southwest through Sunday.

    In the post-Elliot Southwest universe, award ticket fees are your best gamer bet. (Thanks to Dave)
  2. Bank of America’s Spirit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 65,000 points and a $100 companion flight voucher after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. Redemptions on Spirit are often in the 2,500 – 7,500 point range.

    Note that you’ll need a promo code, and reportedly 110662 works, though generally with these any six digit number starting with a ‘1’ also works. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through Tuesday, June 17. Amazon gift cards continue to be excluded.
  4. The Incomm sites are playing their Incomm tricks:

    – MasterCardGiftCard: Fee-free cards with promo DAD2025
    – VanillaGift: Fee-free cards with promo VGDAD25
    – TheGiftCardShop: *crickets*

    Science is still trying to determine what the reason for this promotion is. We may never know. We do however know that these cards work better than others for certain big box retailers, in certain circumstances with certain velocity limits.
  5. Citi ThankYou has Apple gift card redemptions at 10% off, and with $100 Apple gift cards reselling at 90%+ you’ve got a slight edge over a one cent per point cash-out.
  6. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on $250+ at Southwest up to $400 through July 2. Obviously this pairs nicely with today’s lead.

Have a nice Thursday!

If gaming Southwest was a fridge, it’d be like a bachelor fridge.

  1. Southwest has 50% off of both paid and award bookings on “select flights” with promo code WOWZERS, a promo code that proves Southwest’s humor has officially entered the 1990s.

    Note that if you change any flights booked before May 28, you’ll lose the pre-Elliott benefits of those flights like free checked bags, same day changes, and non-expiring paid flight credits.
  2. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue released its June promo rewards for travel through November 30. US cities include:

    – San Diego
    – Las Vegas
    – Denver
    – Orlando
    – New York

    Economy flights are 18,750 miles and business flights are 60,000 miles between the US and Europe. Don’t forget train stations for faux-direct flights to Paris or Amsterdam.

Happy Wednesday!

Southwest’s fashion inspiration board circa 2025.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton for Business’s offer for 5,000 bonus points after each stay, limit: a whopping three times.

    In case you’re bored and want to earn ~$50 worth of classic Hilton points, you can add five employees, or I guess five “employees”, to your Hilton for Business account for 10,000 bonus points.
  2. American Express Membership Rewards has a transfer bonus to British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus through July 15. With Avios.com transfers, you can move these to FinnAir, Qatar, or Vueling.
  3. Several airline portals have a first half of June promotion for spend:

    – Southwest: 2,000 Rapid Rewards after $300 spend
    – AA: 500 bonus miles after $200 spend
    – Delta: 500 bonus miles after $100 spend

    Of course use portal classics like giftcards.com to manufacture the bonus, and also awe at a first in the modern era: Delta’s SkyMiles offers a better deal than AAdvantage miles at least until you consider the relative value of each mile.
  4. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points with the purchase of $500 in third party gift cards including bulk resale classics like BestBuy and Target, but you’ll need multiple accounts to scale.
  5. Target has a $10 Target gift card free with a $100 One4All gift card through Saturday, and including the varieties that convert to bulk resale classics like Lowes and Home Depot.
  6. Chime has a $460 bonus through InboxDollars for creating a new Chime account and receiving two direct deposits of $201+ each with the first deposit in 30 days.

    Historically Chime has been surprisingly easy to churn, just don’t make their job dead simple, which is a classic mistake.
  7. The Barclays Hawaiian card, a cult classic when paired with the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Mastercard underwritten by Barclays but still separate, has a 70,000 mile sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in 90 days.
  8. PayPal Bill Pay billers (a cryptic MEAB classic): 🪓🪦😭

Happy Tuesday!

Pictured: Repurposed classic MEAB image.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please indulge me for a Monday delirium post after an amazing weekend of networking.

In churning, or in real life, consider the sum of everything you know and ask yourself two questions:

  • What percentage of everything did I learn from someone else, and what percentage did I discover?
  • How much did I earn from each of the above?

Of course “always be probing”, but maybe also “always be networking” too. We often stand on each other’s shoulders.

Happy Monday!

Pictured: A churner Falls from a PPBP pyramid. (Too soon?)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a bonus guest post from SideShowBob233 thrown together after another run-in with a bank.

After hearing about another recent incident with a similar result, I wanted to share my story and my lessons learned from having my American Express account hacked. 

I woke up to a bunch of emails from AmEx showing my password was reset, my phone number was changed and there were some gift card redemptions.  Not a pleasant thing to see, but I had to get the kids to school so I had to put it off. The emails were hours old anyway, whatever damage happened was already done.  

When I checked later, I found the scammer had managed to reset the password on one of my personal Platinum cards, (because who doesn’t have more than one $695 annual fee card lying around under a pile of rakes?) get into my login, and apparently used chat to go to town (he – and I’ll refer to the scammer as he but it could have been a she as I’m all for equal opportunity scamming) seemingly had my 3 digit code from the back of the card and possibly my security word, but I’m not sure.  Below is a redacted (to protect the innocent, or in this case the mildly guilty) chat log of the scammer’s interactions with AmEx:

2 AM local time, SideShowBob233 is snoring loudly while sleeping in a room filled with rakes:

Amex chat: Hi Bob, please select one of these options, or in a few words tell me what you need help with.

Scammer: Hi. My name is SideShowBob233 (the 233 is my IQ). I want to request my pending points to be available. I want to use them right now. I make all my payments through Autopay and all my payments are on time. I also have orange hair.  

Amex: A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly.

Amex: Hi Bob. This is Francis [likely not the Pope – but I wasn’t 100% sure]. I see that you are chatting to accelerate pending points.

Amex: Let me go ahead and review your account and also browse the internet while I make you wait.

Amex: Kindly verify the last five digits of the card in question and then when you last had sex

Scammer: 96969 and right now

Amex: Thank you. I am checking on it.

Scammer: Let me change that last answer as I’m already done 😬

Amex: Are you referring to the 69,420 points?

Scammer: Yes

Amex: I have accelerated pending points and it has been added into your reward points balance.

Scammer: Thank you kindly now can you help me scam some more?

Scammer: Can you help update my new office or business phone number on my accounts, cell number remains the same and I also want to use some of my Platinum card rewards balance and order 1 $69 egift card.

Amex: To update the number, I will help you to update it on the account.

Amex: Please share the business phone number you wish to add on the account.

Scammer: The online option does not seem to work, When I add the gift card to cart, the page keeps on loading

Amex: I kindly ask that you consider switching to a different browser, or alternatively, you may clear the cache, cookies, and browsing history of your current browser.

Amex: After doing so, please open a new tab and log into your online account once more; this should resolve the issue.

Scammer: I am not doing all of this right now. Can you just order it or I will try later?

[Note the angryish/insistent tone – red flag]

Scammer: XXXXXXXXX (his phone number – surprisingly NOT 1-800-SCAM-MER)

Scammer: This is the new business phone number

Amex: Do you have platinum card handy ending with 96969?

Scammer: I do

Amex: Perfect. To proceed, I will need to ask you a few security questions to ensure the process is conducted accurately on your account.

Amex: To protect your account security, please answer the following question.

Scammer: Submitted

Amex: To protect your account security, please answer the following question.

Scammer: Submitted

Amex: I have added the business number to the account.

Amex: I have ordered your $69 egift card. You will receive confirmation E-mail for the same and it will be available to use in next 4-24 hours.

Now some comments: 

The scammer seemed to have had to have both the 4 digit code on the front and 3 digit code on the back of my card.  Not clear how they got it as the card rarely leaves my house and in fact is almost never used.  It was replaced recently, which is how I am guessing it was compromised – but I am not more than 69.420% convinced that’s the case.  A swiper wouldn’t get the 3 digit code on the back but I guess if there was a camera there too, it could have.  The card was used in person exactly one time, at a Saks a few weeks ago. Did not see anything on the card reader and I was there a while; our family likes to buy stuff at Saks for some reason (might be the large clown shoes they sell).  

Now SideShowBob233 you say to yourself, again out loud while streaking through your backyard again because it’s the only way to talk over the voices you’re hearing in your head, how could you have prevented this?   I have some ideas only some of which come from the voices in my head. 

First, turn on two factor authentication in your logins.  I always avoided it and complained extensively in the few cases where AmEx forced it on me (My friends, neighbors and even random hobos near Dollar General can confirm my complaining).  No longer.  Yes, it’s a PITA but it would have kept the scammer out of my login.  Second, turn on 2FA some more.  If you don’t know how to do level two 2FA, what are you even doing with your life?  I mean come on dude.  

Also change your security word periodically, I don’t know if the scammer had mine or not, but mine was a word nobody would ever guess (not, it’s not rake, not even with a 69 after it), if they did they would have had to have gotten it from Amex rep when I called in the past.  It’s not something you’d know about me either.  P2 doesn’t even know it.  

Not many people are aware of it, but the AmEx card numbering scheme is very outdated, and there are not all that many unique numbers on AmEx cards.  Losing your card and getting a replacement number gives a very predictable result, both for the new card number AND the expiration date, meaning the 4 and 3 digit codes are the only things that are really secure once your card number is compromised.  This is likely what led to the tons of Facebook $2 fraud but who knows, maybe Zuck just needed a new island.  So if a number is compromised consider losing the card 2-3 times to randomize it a little bit (both the replacement expiration date and the last digit).  

My case had a (mostly) happy ending – AmEx apparently caught the fraud and invalidated the cards before I even called.  After uploading a DNA sample, stool sample, and Clorox wiping down my scanner, my accounts were cleared and I am now free to go back into the AmEx void to be scammed again.  My scanner still isn’t speaking to me though.  

– SideShowBob233

SideShowBob233’s two factor authentication (level two) helps protect lunch.

  1. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s promotion for double points at Marriott Homes & Villas booked by June 5 for stays through September 4.

    Why do this now? Previously unplanned bookings happen all the time, and sometimes promotions apply differently than you’d expect.
  2. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards excluding Amazon running tomorrow only.

    BestBuy is generally the best choice for resale rates for manufactured spenders, but lately there are activation issues with certain BestBuy cards (those with serial numbers starting with FD seem fine, those in the 1124 batch are bad news bears). Other brands may be better choices for rookies.
  3. Kroger has fee-free variable load $150+ Visa and Mastercard gift cards with coupon through Tuesday. Unfortunately, this coupon is single use per Kroger account, but gamers gonna game.

    These are Pathward gift cards, Kroger’s US Bank stock is long gone.
  4. Simon Mall is shutting down its bulk Visa gift card buying platform on July 11. As long as you had a seasoned account, this was a five-figures a day program for more Old School Cool people than you’d probably guess. Let’s call them the Old School Coolers!

    The part that worries me the most about the shutdown is where all the volume is going to go, and what it’ll do to the next thing when it goes. (Thanks to Anthony, Sam, and mpohl)
  5. American Express Offers has quite a few new hotel promotions:

    – $50 back on $250+ at IHG properties in North America through August 26
    – $100 back on $500+ at Opal properties in Florida by September 30
    – $100 back on $500+ at Omni Hotels through September 12
    – $100 back on $500+ at Wyndham properties through October 31

    Don’t forget faux-cardpointers amex-load-offer.js.

The Old School Coolers’ mascot is now filled only with tears.

  1. The Wyndham Rewards personal and business credit cards have a promotion for 10x rewards at Sunoco gas stations through August 31. There are Sunocos that sell Swedish Fish monster packs for $506.95 too. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Blit’s 200% transfer bonus for Gold and Platinum members to Accor ALL on Sunday is a backdoor transfer bonus to other programs that integrate with Accor too. For example, with Sunday’s 1:2 transfer ratio:

    – 1,000 Bilt → 2,000 Accor → 2,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 2,000 AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 1,250 ITA Airways Volare

    Honestly, some of those rates are so fetch, or at least Chad says they are. (Thanks to Alec for letting me know about the Qantas angle)
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for a $250 statement credit with $1,250+ at Qantas Airways for flights booked by July 4 originating in the US.
  4. Breeze Airways has a promotion for 44% off of base fares with code BIRTHDAY for travel booked by Friday and flown between June 11 and January 6, 2026. There are blackout dates around when you’d expect them.

    It’s been a while since we’ve played a round of the Breeze Route Dartboard Bingo™, so let’s call another route: Wilkes-Barre, PA – Fort Meyers, FL, or AVP-RSW for the ICAO geeks out there! If you’ve made a bingo, reach out for a 44% off of base fares promotional code on any Breeze route, including this one.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Spending $506.95 for a Swedish Fish shows that inflation’s already hit Big Gummy.